Natural Homemade Living

A simple dinner idea is stir fry chicken. It only takes a few ingredients and if you don't have fresh veggies you can use frozen veggies. It's a healthy meal and it's another favorite at our house! Ingredients : 2 T oil (I use olive oil) 1 bag frozen stir fry veggies or 3-4 cups of fresh veggies of your choice 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced 1/4 c chicken stock or broth 2 T soy sauce 2 cups cooked rice (or 1/2 per serving) Directions : Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat on the stove. Slice your chicken in thin strips and add to the hot oil. Cook the chicken, about 8-10 minutes, then add chicken stock and soy sauce. Add veggies and stir. Cook for another 7-10 minutes. I like my veggies a little crunchy. Add cooked rice and mix together. (You can also leave the rice out serve as a side on your plate, then add the stir fry mixture over the top). This makes about 4 servings. Enjoy! Love and peace, ~ Simply Tammi

I'm always in the mood for a good soup or chowder, especially when it's chilly..and in the Midwest, there's no shortage of chilly days...even though it's supposed to be spring! This is one of my "go to" recipes when I need something filling and am short on time. I almost always have the ingredients on hand. It's adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Pork Sausage & Ham Cookbook. Here's what you need: 6 slices bacon cut up 1c chopped onion I use sweet yellow 2 T flour 3 c milk 2 medium potatoes peeled and diced Salt and pepper to taste, because of the salt in the bacon I only add pepper 1 22oz (or close to it) can or jar baked beans -I use Bush's Original Cook bacon and onion till bacon is browned and onion is tender. Blend in flour. Add milk, cook and stir until bubbly. Add potatoes salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 12-15 minutes or till potatoes are done. Stir in beans and heat. Makes at least 6 good size servings. Enjoy! ~Simpl...

If you have 15 minutes and a couple of ingredients, you can make your own blueberry sauce or jam without using sugar or pectin. My inspiration for this recipe actually came from a recent yogurt experience. I ran out of homemade yogurt and didn't have an extra minute that day (for real - lol) so I had to buy yogurt to get me through the crisis situation. I have issues with store bought yogurt, which is why I make my own. Here's the recipe in case you haven't been following us, Simply Homemade Yogurt . If I have to buy yogurt my favorite is the brand Kalona but this week I spotted the "Noosa Yoghurt" and it looked really good. It had blueberries on the bottom and what looked to be a nice creamy yogurt on the top. I usually dislike yogurt with fruit on the bottom because they have too much sugar and syrup, but the Noosa yogurt was delicious! The yogurt was creamy and the fruit was real! So as I savored every bite of my store bought yogurt, I thought there must b...

My husband used to like the scary breakfast muffins from the fast food restaurants. I tried a bite once then suggested we change that routine. To me, nothing about that bite tasted like real food. So I started making our own breakfast muffins, froze the extras in the freezer so he could take them to work and heat them or just grab one on the go. These taste great and are a healthy breakfast or I even like them for lunch. You can decide what you want to put on your muffins. The favorites for the children are ham, bacon or sausage, or you can make them without meat. The very best is to make your own English muffins using our recipe Simply Homemade English Muffins . It may seem like a time consuming process but it really isn't, there time while you are making them to multi-task and in the end you have 20-24 delicious homemade English muffins! Use your favorite English muffins if you don't have time to make your own. This recipe is for 6 egg breakfast muffins. If you are making ...

If you are looking for quick project to do with the kids to keep them entertained, homemade play dough is always a favorite at my house. They can help make it by mixing and kneading and picking what color they want to make it and then when it's done they can of course play with it.  For our batch we made red and yellow, then we could mix a little from both and also have... orange! (this was very exciting to a 2 year old!) This recipe makes quite a bit so if you only have one child you could half it. It will last quite awhile in an airtight container. I keep mine in the fridge. Here's what you need: 1cup flour  1/2 cup salt 1 cup water 1 tsp cream of tartar 1 Tbsp oil food coloring This can be cooked on the stove or in the microwave. Mix all ingredients in a pan or microwave safe bowl, if you are cooking on the stove, stir and cook until the ingredients leave the sides of the pan then remove it and let it cool. For cooking in the microwave, mix in a microwave s...

It was my lucky day at the grocery store, green peppers were on sale! Sometimes it's the little things that make your day! My garden peppers are already gone which means I better plant more than 2 plants next year. 😀 Ingredients : 1 pepper per person, washed and cored, use green, orange, yellow or red peppers 1 cup tomato sauce 1 cup diced tomatoes 1 tsp basil 1 tsp rosemary 1 tsp thyme 1 cup dry rice (use the rice of your choice, I use basmati or brown rice) 1 pound ground beef, cooked 1 shallot, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 T Worcestershire sauce Optional: 6-7 fresh mushrooms, sliced 1/2 c shredded cheese (colby, cheddar, mozarella or your choice) salt and pepper to taste Directions : Cook your rice according to the directions depending on the rice you use.  Over medium heat on the stove, cook ground beef in another pan. In a large bowl, mix all of the seasonings, veggies and tomato ingredients together. Add the cooked rice and ground beef to the ingred...

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to start my mission to find a homemade liquid dishwasher soap. I really do prefer liquid soap over powdered soaps. Since I love the Simply Liquid Laundry Detergent (also on our Most Popular Posts) so much I knew there had to be a liquid dishwasher soap that we could make and that works. I found a recipe on http://choosingsimplicity.blogspot.com .and tried it. I read the reviews and as it happens with everything, some people had issues and some people loved it. It seems that part of the problem with homemade dishwasher soap is water type...do you have soft water, hard water, well-water....you know what I mean? And then there is the whole what to put in the rinse aid container? Lemon juice, vinegar, inexpensive rinse aid, expensive rinse aid...? SO what I'm trying to say is that there doesn't seem to be a perfect dishwasher soap. But I wanted to save money and I wanted a liquid soap, so I tried it anyway. I figured it would be ...

I love to look at all of the recipes and notes in our Grandma's old recipe book that she started to put together in 1929. I still laugh when I page through it and see all of the hand-written recipes, the little notes and the titles of some of the recipes, such as Date Bread (Mrs. Ness), Francis' Chocolate Cake (oh very good!!), Very Good Gingerbread Mix. So today I thought I would try "Mrs. Erickson's Banana Bread." I don't know who Mrs. Erickson is, but I would say either a neighbor or a church lady. Update : mystery solved, I called Mom and she said Mrs. Erickson was her piano teacher! She also said her house always smelled like baked goods - love it!! Ingredients: 1 cup white sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda pinch of salt 1/2 cup sour milk (make this using 1/2 c milk and add 1 tsp white vinegar) 3 eggs 1/2 cup shortening (I used 1/3 cup canola oil instead) 3 overly-ripe bananas, mashed 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) There were no instr...

This recipe has been around a long time but it is so easy to put together and yummy, it is a favorite! You can even make it the night before, keep it in the refrigerator and bake it in the morning. We modified it using our favorite things! There are many versions so we hope you enjoy ours! This makes about 6 servings. Ingredients : 3 c hash browns, frozen or fresh 1 c shredded cheese 1 c cooked sausage (you could also use ham, ground beef, vegan crumbles or bacon) 1/2 shallot, diced 5 eggs, beaten 1 1/2 c milk salt and pepper to taste * You can also add green pepper, mushrooms, red pepper, onion...all your favorite veggies!! Heat oven to 350F. Grease your baking dish, I used coconut oil and a 2 quart casserole dish.  If you are using sausage or ground beef, cook your meat first, with the shallots, in a medium pan over medium heat on the stove. I like to layer my casserole because I like to be in order - haha! (it's true). I put the potatoes on the bottom of the dish,...

  Monkey bread is always a favorite weekend treat! It doesn't take very long to put it all together and my family can hardly wait for me to take it out of the oven! Ingredients : 3 cans buttermilk biscuits, quartered (we usually all just take a biscuit and tear it into a few pieces) 1 1/2 c sugar 1 tsp cinnamon Topping : 1/4 c evaporated or regular milk 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) 1/4 c brown sugar 1 c white sugar (I use the leftover sugar from above and add a little more if needed to make 1 cup, it's ok that the cinnamon is already mixed in) 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon Directions : Remove the biscuits from the packages and cut into quarters. Pour the sugar and cinnamon into a large baggie. Add the biscuit quarters to the baggie, seal the top and shake until the biscuit pieces are covered with sugar and cinnamon.  Place the biscuit pieces in an ungreased bundt pan. Mix the topping ingredients together and cook in a small pan over low heat on the stove until t...